Digital Commons Network^™

Is There A Space In Landslide Susceptibility Modelling: A Case Study Of Valtellina Valley, Northern Italy, Min Naing Khant, Mei Yi Victoria Grace Ann, Tin Seong Kam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Landslides pose significant and ever-threatening risks to human life and infrastructure worldwide. Landslide susceptibility modelling is an emerging field of research seeking to determine contributing factors of these events. Yet, previous studies rarely explored the spatial variation of different landslide factors. Hence, this study aims to demonstrate the potential contribution of spatial nonstationarity in landslide susceptibility modelling using Global Logistic Regression (GLR) and Geographically Weighted Logistic Regression (GWLR). The second objective of this study is to demonstrate the important role of data preparation, data sampling, variable sensing, and variable selections in landslide susceptibility modelling. Using Valtellina Valley in Northern Italy …

A Review Of Secondary Technology Education Teacher Needs In Virginia, M. Kathleen Ferguson

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Technology education teachers can have varied pre-service training experiences, thus their needs for classroom support may vary greatly. Perkins V requires evidence-based research to justify the use of funding for professional development. This researcher sought to support Virginia’s secondary technology education teachers, professional organizations, and the Virginia Department of Education’s Technology Education Specialist by providing research to determine professional development needs. This three-phase qualitative study used a survey, documents review, and focus groups to triangulate data to provide information about the research questions. The research questions focused on teachers’ educational background, technology program goals, and issues specific to secondary technology …

Study Of Atypical Alarmone Synthesis In Clostridioides Difficile, Declan Nathaniel Butler

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Clostridioides difficile is a Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium that causes infections in humans that costs healthcare systems billions per year. C. difficile infection has high rates of recurrence due to multiple antibiotic resistance. When bacteria are in stressful environments, they produce hyperphosphorylated guanosine ribonucleotide signaling molecules called alarmones. The accumulation of alarmones activates the stringent response (SR), in which bacterial cells induce transcription of stress survival genes to delay growth and replication. The C. difficile SR is regulated by enzymatic activity of a bifunctional synthetase/hydrolase, RelA/SpoT homolog (RSH), and a monofunctional small alarmone synthetase (RelQ). Additionally, the SR is potentially regulated …

Mesostructure Reconstruction Of Prepreg Platelet Molded Composite With Artificial Intelligence, Richard Larson

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Prepreg platelet molded composites (PPMC) are long, discontinuous fiber reinforced polymer materials. PPMC are an important subcategory of composite materials as they are processible into geometrically complex structures and can be produced via high-throughput manufacturing processes, however they have higher stiffness and strength as compared to traditional discontinuous fiber reinforced polymers. However, there is inherent randomness in the structure of PPMCs and as such, PPMC parts frequently require per part testing that is cost prohibitive.

Herein, a method using artificial intelligence is proposed as a more cost-effective method of inspecting PPMC parts. Different artificial intelligence (AI) architectures are explored to …

Women Strength: Using Photovoice To Explore Female Chinese International Students’ Experiences, Yue Cai

Doctoral Dissertations

Female Chinese international students face discrimination and stereotypes in Western academia based on race and gender, yet they possess unique “Women Strength” characterized by agency, resilience, and self-advocacy. This study explores how these students navigate cultural differences and develop their strengths while studying in the U.S. Drawing upon “Women Strength” as a theoretical framework, including Community Cultural Wealth, Critical Feminist Theory- Chinese feminism, decolonial feminism, and transnational feminism, transformative agency, resilience theory, and self-advocacy theory, this research employs a qualitative approach, including Photovoice and autoethnography. Three research questions guide the study: 1) What cultural differences do female Chinese international students …

Parallel-In-Time Implicit Schemes For Nonlinear Pdes, Subhash Paudel

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

An accurate prediction of unsteady physical phenomena arising in various applications (e.g., rotorcraft and turbomachinery flows, fluid-structure interaction, maneuvering flight conditions, etc.) requires a very large number of time steps, thus considerably increasing the total computational time, because conventional time integrators are inherently sequential. Parallel-in-time methods offer a promising direction for drastically reducing the computational time and achieving such scalability that is required for solving these unsteady problems on modern supercomputers with hundreds of thousands of computing cores. The parallel performance of existing parallel-in-time algorithms for nonlinear equations especially of the hyperbolic or mixed type is far from being satisfactory. …

Associations Between Combat Exposure, Moral Injury, And Suicidality Among U.S. Military Members: The Moderating Impact Of Positive Rumination, Jeffrey M. Gabelmann

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Numerous studies have documented the risk for suicide among recent-era veterans with combat experience. Recently, moral injury has emerged as a possible contributor to suicidality in veterans. To that end, no study has approached the combat exposure-moral injury-suicidality link with a focus grounded in positive psychology. Specifically, the present study explored whether positive rumination, or the reflection on positive emotions and moods, may buffer the deleterious effects of potentially traumatic experiences in warzones on moral injury and suicidality. This study was a secondary analysis of 250 current or former U.S. military members (M_age = 33.3 years) who had …

A Microservices Approach To Electroencephalography Research In The Public Cloud, Bathsheba Farrow

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The rich information content of the brain is embedded in electroencephalography (EEG) data that instantaneously measures its electrophysiological activity. Expansion of EEG data usage for health risk predictions and other applications requires reliable and consistent methods for extracting features from raw signals. However, the intricate nature of EEG signal data analysis is further complicated by the magnitude of variability in current research practices, including data preprocessing strategies. The heavy reliance on antiquated, stove-piped applications and pipelines also highlights a need for improved solutions that enable efficient, distributed preprocessing of large EEG data collections.

To address these challenges, we propose a …

Hydrogen Sulfide As A Strong Ligand Affecting Trace Metal Cycling In The Pacific And Southern Oceans, Nicole R. Buckley

OES Theses and Dissertations

Historically, hydrogen sulfide was considered unimportant in the open ocean since it has primarily been associated with anoxic environments. Yet, in the late 1980s it was suggested that this sulfur gas is also being produced in the oxic, surface ocean through the hydrolysis of carbonyl sulfide (OCS). Since then, several studies have demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide is indeed found in oxic seawater at pico- to nanomolar concentrations due not only to carbonyl sulfide hydrolysis, but also assimilatory sulfate reduction by phytoplankton. Hydrogen sulfide’s importance in seawater is largely due to its high metal-ligand stability constants allowing it to affect the …

Raemap: Real-Time Advanced Eye Movements Analysis Pipeline, Gavindya Jayawardena

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Eye-tracking offers insights into human cognition and attention allocation by capturing and interpreting eye movements. Traditionally, eye tracking research has relied on offline analysis methods, requiring post-experiment processing to derive insights from gaze data. This approach limits its applicability in contexts requiring immediate feedback and adaptive responses based on real-time gaze behaviors. Recent advancements in computing power and eye tracking technology have enabled a shift towards real-time analysis, allowing modern systems to interpret gaze data with minimal latency, facilitating integration into interactive applications and experiments. Despite these advancements, existing tools often face challenges with real-time computation of advanced gaze measures …

Use Of Cobalt(Iii) And Copper(Ii) Complexes With Thiosemicarbazone Ligands And Berberine Chloride As Anti-Cancer Agents Against Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Duaa Rashad Alajroush

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

It is a worrying fact that chemotherapeutic options for treating triple negative breast cancer are limited in nature, including the use of inorganic pharmaceuticals such as cisplatin and its analogues. It has been reported that cisplatin has undesirable side effects when used as a chemotherapeutic drug. As such, there is a need to use non-platinum-containing complexes as chemotherapeutic agents. Based on that issue, it has been reported by our research group and others that cobalt- and copper-containing complexes have shown great potential in anti-cancer properties when compared to cisplatin. In this research project, the cytotoxic effects of the following complexes: …

Harnessing Social Media For Disaster Response: Intelligent Identification Of Reliable Rescue Requests During Hurricanes, Wael Khallouli

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Hurricanes pose a significant threat to both human lives and infrastructure. Decision-makers face substantial challenges during such events, as they must act quickly to address victims’ needs. Social media platforms provide a valuable source for quick and real-time information. Recent hurricane events have shown that people turn to social media to call for help when official communication channels, such as 911, are overwhelmed. However, extracting actionable information from the massive number of messages posted on social media is challenging. Furthermore, verifying social media messages posted by the public is a critical concern for disaster response practitioners, making them hesitant to …

Deep Learning In Reproducing Kernel Banach Spaces, Mingsong Yan

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

Deep learning has achieved immense success in the past decade. The goal of this dissertation is to understand deep learning through the framework of reproducing kernel Banach spaces (RKBSs), which were originally proposed for promoting sparse solutions. We begin by considering learning problems in a general functional setting, and establishing explicit and data-dependent representer theorems for both minimal norm interpolation (MNI) problems and regularization problems. These theorems provide a crucial foundation for the subsequent results derived for both sparse learning and deep learning. Next, we investigate the essential properties of RKBSs capable of encouraging sparsity in learning solutions. With the …

An Integrated Space Test Lexicon: A Taxonomy For The Integrated Test And Evaluation Of Space Systems, Stephen K. Tullino, Andrew S. Keys, Robert A. Bettinger, Amy M. Cox, David R. Jacques

Faculty Publications

The proposed Integrated Space Test Lexicon is intended to amalgamate the numerous definitions of integrated (IT or IT&E), development test (DT or DT&E), and operational test (OT or OT&E) into unified, service-wide definitions, aligned with the Space Test Enterprise Vision. Refining such definitions will help distill the core characteristics of these fundamental test types to first identify space system activities composing what is traditionally known as DT and OT, then to provide a means of how these activities fit into the IT paradigm and support space system development. In forging a common understanding of how DT and OT support space …

Large Monochromatic Components In Expansive Hypergraphs, Deepak Bal, Louis Debiasio

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A result of Gyárfás [12] exactly determines the size of a largest monochromatic component in an arbitrary r-colouring of the complete k-uniform hypergraph Kn^k when k ≥ 2 and k ∈ {r − 1, r}. We prove a result which says that if one replaces Kn^k in Gyárfás’ theorem by any ‘expansive’ k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices (that is, a k-uniform hypergraph G on n vertices in which e(V1, . . . , Vk) > 0 for all disjoint sets V1, . . . , Vk ⊆ V(G) with |Vi| > α for all i ∈ [k]), then one gets …

Pharmacokinetic Modeling Of The Effect Of Tariquidar On Ondansetron Disposition Into The Central Nervous System, Manting Chiang, Hyunmoon Back, Jong Bong Lee, Sarah Oh, Tiffany Guo, Simone Girgis, Celine Park, Simon Haroutounian, Leonid Kagan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Serotonin (5-HT

METHODS: Ondansetron (10 mg/kg) and tariquidar (7.5 mg/kg) were administered intravenously, plasma and tissue samples were collected and analyzed by HPLC. A mathematical model with brain, spinal cord, cerebrospinal fluid and two systemic disposition compartments was developed to describe the data.

RESULTS: The results demonstrate that tariquidar at 7.5 mg/kg resulted in a complete inhibition of Pgp efflux of ondansetron in the brain and spinal cord. The compartmental model successfully captured pharmacokinetics of ondansetron in wild type and Pgp knockout (KO) animals receiving the drug alone or in wild type animals receiving the ondansetron and tariquidar combination. …

Cone-Beam Ct With A Noncircular (Sine-On-Sphere) Orbit: Imaging Performance Of A Clinical System For Image-Guided Interventions, A Kyle Jones, Moiz Ahmad, Shaan M Raza, Stephen R Chen, Jeffrey H Siewerdsen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: We aim to compare the imaging performance of a cone-beam CT (CBCT) imaging system with noncircular scan protocols (sine-on-sphere) to a conventional circular orbit.

Approach: A biplane C-arm system (ARTIS Icono; Siemens Healthineers) capable of circular and noncircular CBCT acquisition was used, with the latter orbit (sine-on-sphere, "Sine Spin") executing a sinusoidal motion with ±10deg tilt amplitude over the half-scan orbit. A test phantom was used for the characterization of image uniformity, noise, noise-power spectrum (NPS), spatial resolution [modulation transfer function (MTF) in axial and oblique directions], and cone-beam artifacts. Findings were interpreted using an anthropomorphic head phantom with …

New Labor Curves Of Dilation And Station To Improve The Accuracy Of Predicting Labor Progress., Emily F Hamilton, Tilekbek Zhoroev, Philip A Warrick, Adi L Tarca, Thomas J Garite, Aaron B Caughey, Jason Melillo, Mona Prasad, Duncan Neilson, Peter Singson, Kimberlee Mckay, Roberto Romero

Women’s Health Articles

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of failure to progress, the most common indication for intrapartum cesarean delivery, is based on the assessment of cervical dilation and station over time. Labor curves serve as references for expected changes in dilation and fetal descent. The labor curves of Friedman, Zhang et al, and others are based on time alone and derived from mothers with spontaneous labor onset. However, labor induction is now common, and clinicians also consider other factors when assessing labor progress. Labor curves that consider the use of labor induction and other factors that influence labor progress have the potential to be …

Microkarta: Visualising Microservice Architectures, Oscar Manglaras, Alex Farkas, Peter Fule, Christoph Treude, Markus Wagner

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Conceptualising and debugging a microservice architecture can be a challenge for developers due to the complex topology of inter-service communication, which may only apparent when viewing the architecture as a whole. In this paper, we present MicroKarta, a dashboard containing three types of network diagram that visualise complex microservice architectures, and that are designed to address problems faced by developers of these architectures. Initial feedback from industry developers has been positive. This dashboard can be used by developers to explore and debug microservice architectures, and can be used to compare the effectiveness of different types of network visualisation for assisting …

Reinforcement Learning For Strategic Airport Slot Scheduling: Analysis Of State Observations And Reward Designs, Anh Nguyen-Duy, Duc-Thinh Pham, Jian-Yi Lye, Nguyen Binh Duong Ta

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to the NP-hard nature, the strategic airport slot scheduling problem is calling for exploring sub-optimal approaches, such as heuristics and learning-based approaches. Moreover, the continuous increase in air traffic demand requires approaches that can work well in new scenarios. While heuristics rely on a fixed set of rules, which limits the ability to explore new solutions, Reinforcement Learning offers a versatile framework to automate the search and generalize to unseen scenarios. Finding a suitable state observation and reward structure design is essential in using Reinforcement Learning. In this paper, we investigate the impact of providing the Reinforcement Learning agent …

Esem: To Harden Process Synchronization For Servers, Zhanbo Wang, Jiaxin Zhan, Xuhua Ding, Fengwei Zhang, Ning Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Process synchronization primitives lubricate server computing involving a group of processes as they ensure those processes to properly coordinate their executions for a common purpose such as provisioning a web service. A malfunctioned synchronization due to attacks causes friction among processes and leads to unexpected, and often hard-to-detect, application transaction errors. Unfortunately, synchronization primitives are not naturally protected by existing hardware-assisted isolation techniques e.g., SGX, because their process-oriented isolation conflicts with the primitive's demand for cross-process operations.This paper introduces the Enclave-Semaphore service (ESem) which shelters application semaphores and their operations against kernel-privileged attacks. ESem encapsulates all semaphores in the platform …

Sulfur Hexafluoride Accumulation In Groundwaters Within Shelby County, Tennessee, Raka Sunderland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Geochemical data from 2009-2023 for production wells in Shelby County, Tennessee, were analyzed to determine the origin of discrepancies in sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) results in relationship to other tracers and hydrogeologic characteristics of sampled wells. This study proposes three potential origins for the discrepancies: modern SF6 contamination introduced during sampling, contributions of terrigenic SF6 formation, and groundwater re-equilibration with modern air in the unsaturated zone. The results suggest contamination with modern air during sampling is significant in some settings. An airtight sampling method was developed and shown to be successful in reducing introduction of modern air during sampling. The results …

Energy Storage Systems Modeling And Optimization, Yogesh Nmn Manoharan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

In this dissertation, the presented research supports the energy transition from fossil fuels to clean energy through the optimization of sizing of energy storage systems, operational strategies, and renewable energy systems considering the uncertainties in atmospheric conditions. Towards this transition, maintaining stability between generation and demand is necessary due to the increasing renewable penetration, intermittency, and uncertainty. Maintenance of the stability between renewable energy generation and load is challenging because of varying resource availabilities, demand profiles, and economic factors in any given location. Though there are several techniques employed traditionally, here in this dissertation energy storage systems and demand side …

The Reliability Of Assessment During Learning, Blake Ryan Telfer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Maximizing the efficiency of testing for learning is an important educational goal (Schellekens et al., 2021). According to Portela et al. (2017), educational efficiency is achieved when learning and test results are generated with minimal resources and high efficacy. Traditionally in classrooms, feedback from tests is provided after a test is finished. However, research on the testing effect (Kang et al., 2007; Rowland, 2014) and studies on assessment during feedback (Chang & Li, 2019) suggest that educational efficiency can be enhanced by providing immediate feedback after each response. Our goal is to investigate whether immediate feedback during assessment affects the …

Using Chatgpt As A Thought Partner In Writing Relevant Proportional Reasoning Word Problems, Andrea Berryhill, Lendon Chandler, Liza Bondurant, Bima Sapkota

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this article, we, two preservice mathematics teachers (PSTs) and two mathematics teacher educators (MTEs), explore the potential of using ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM), as a thought partner to create relevant proportional reasoning word problems. We detail our iterative process of refining our inputs and critically evaluating ChatGPT's outputs. Our takeaways from this journey offer valuable insights for educators seeking to leverage the capabilities of LLMs in their lesson-planning endeavors.

On Angles In Higher Order Brillouin Tessellations And Related Tilings In The Plane, Herbert Edelsbrunner, Alexey Garber, Mohadese Ghafari, Teresa Heiss, Morteza Saghafian

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

For a locally finite set in R 2 , the order-k Brillouin tessellations form an infinite sequence of convex face-to-face tilings of the plane. If the set is coarsely dense and generic, then the corresponding infinite sequences of minimum and maximum angles are both monotonic in k. As an example, a stationary Poisson point process in R 2 is locally finite, coarsely dense, and generic with probability one. For such a set, the distributions of angles in the Voronoi tessellations, Delaunay mosaics, and Brillouin tessellations are independent of the order and can be derived from the formula for angles in …

Transforming Place-Based Management Within Watersheds In Fiji: The Watershed Interventions For Systems Health Project, Stacy D. Jupiter, Aaron P. Jenkins, Joel Negin, Shylett Anthony, Ponipate Baleinamau, Rachel Devi, Sikeli Gavidi, Alice Latinne, Kini Koto Mailautoka, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Kelera Naivalu, Timoci Naivalulevu, Vilisi Naivalulevu, Nabeela Nasim, Sikeli Naucunivanua, Sarah Nelson, Ingrid Qauqau, Anaseini Ratu, Mereia Ravoka, Jacqueline Thomas, Andrew Tukana, Paul Van Nimwegen, Ama Wakwella, Amelia Wenger, Donald Wilson, Pierre Horwitz

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Watersheds offer opportunities for place-based interventions to transform systems health via preventative versus reactive approaches to management that achieve multiple co-benefits for public and environmental health. The Watershed Interventions for Systems Health in Fiji (WISH Fiji) project embraced participatory knowledge co-production and action-oriented research to identify risks to public and ecosystem health, prioritize interventions to address risks, and monitor responses of the system to interventions. We used screening filters and local knowledge to collaboratively identify five watersheds for action with high prior incidence of water-related diseases (Fiji’s “three plagues” of leptospirosis, typhoid and dengue) and high risk to downstream environmental …

Cellulosic Rich Biomass Production With Optimized Process Parameters By Using Glycerol Pretreatment For Biofuels Applications, Muhammad Sulaiman, Hamayoun Mahmood, Haris M. Khan, Tanveer Iqbal, Nehar U. Khan, Muhammad M. Abbas, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam, Manzoore E. M. Soudagar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this work, we conduct acidified aqueous glycerol pre-treatment (AAG) on rice husks (RH) and utilize the response surface methodology (RSM) to assess the impact of pre-treatment parameters. The primary objective of this research is to optimize the parameters to maximize the cellulose content within RH. The parameters under consideration encompassed temperature (ranging from 80 to 110 °C), retention time (spanning 15 to 45 min), and biomass loading (varying from 5 to 10 wt. %). To achieve this optimization, we perform the Box-Behnken Design (BBD) within the framework of RSM. Additionally, we scrutinize the interactive effects of these parameters on …

Solving Unsteady Potential Flow Problems In O(N) Time, Ryan Anderson, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Design of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft is challenging in part due to significant aerodynamic interactions between rotors and wings. Computational models can aid in their design, but are computationally expensive. 3-D panel methods coupled with vortex particle wakes offer an attractive solution, but solving for the panel strengths scales poorly for large problems. Multigrid methods, such as Krylov subspace methods in conjunction with the fast multipole method (FMM), have been demonstrated to reduce the scaling to O(𝑁). We explore the performance and limitations of the Krylov-FMM method, traditional matrix-powered GMRES, LU decomposition, and a novel O(𝑁) multigrid approach to …

Volume 33, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2024, Office Of Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2018-present

VOLUME 33 | NUMBER 2 | Summer/Fall 2024

ON OUR COVER:

President Sheahon Zenger poses for a portrait in the Bates & Merwin Reading Room on the fourth floor of The Ames Library. The room hosts a collection of award-winning books in honor of IWU's former president Minor Myers jr.

18 Discoveing Home, As a career university administrator with a long record of success and optimism for the future of liberal arts, Sheahon Zenger has been appointed the 21st president of Illinois Wesleyan University.

22 Browadway Reunion, More than a decade after last performing together at IWU, Bry Parham '07 …